WNAMM09: Spectralis 2 - 2GB RAM And Other Goodies

Long term viewers of Sonicstate will know that we've followed the Spectralis through right from it's beginnings through to where it is today. It now has a new incarnation in the form of the Spectralis II, we caught up with Joerg Schaaf at NAMM who gave us a look at the new machine. This is what they say on their site:
"Spectralis 2 is the even more powerful successor of Radikals sophisticated Hybrid Synthesizer. With up to 2 GB sample memory and tons of new features Radikal raises the bar again for our competition. Never stop the sequencer engine again with our fully redesigned sequencer engine that allows for on the fly realtime sequencing, recording of MIDI controllers and overdubbing. Quick Sound Selection for every part - your most favorite sounds are just one fingertip away. Transpose your patterns and step sequences with the attached keyboard and control the Spectralis 2 parameters via MIDI from your computer. There is only one thing, we left untouched in our new design - the sound engine. Still the warmest and richest sound out there with the power of a modular synthesizer in a box."
Also on show was the Pre GTX a dual channel analog Guitar Preamp with distortion, drive and full parametric.

Features

- Input impedance 1MOhm.

- 2 channel with gain and drive stage, three band EQ, insert and FX send control.

Thanks. Extremely good to see this posted finally. I'm glad that you also showed the guitar preamp which I was interested in. Spectralis II is one nice instrument and v1 users are not left behind. It's a good day for the Specki.

05-Feb-09 02:13 PM

Nick B Said...

Yeah it always sounds fantastic whenever I've heard on, must have some great converters in there. Guitar preamp is interesting too, if a little tangental

05-Feb-09 02:57 PM

CaffeineAddict Said...

I own a spectralis 1 for 2 years now and it's one of the best sounding synths I've come accross. It has become the centerpiece of my studio because of it's brilliant combination of a stepsequencer, a TR-style drum sequencer and a realtime sequencer.

05-Feb-09 03:59 PM

selercs Said...

access virus is way overrated...it sounds ok, but not that defined, smooth and simply lush as a spectralis. out of all VA's,i would prefer the virus, but out of Virus and Spectralis, its going to be Spectralis hands down! I didn't buy the 1st version because I know Joerg would have to improvise on the design to make a new rev, now that the new rev is out!

This will be my new synth...I've always wanted a groovebox, and the current MPC's and Rolands didn't thrill me like this one!

Joerg, keep it up and hope you continue your support...only suggestion would be to improve your manuals: some native English speaker should create the manuals, like Howard Scarr does for Access Virus. Version 1 Spectralis manual was full of grammatical errors, etc.

Once again, congrats to Joerg! I remember people were criticizing and getting real mad (sometimes understandably) at Joerg for announcing 'Hybrid Synth' (which never came out) without fixing the issues with OS 0.97.

Now these users need to apologize and say thanks! :)

05-Feb-09 07:56 PM

Dayflight Said...

Good Things becomes much better. The Spectralis 2 is a milestone and I can not wait longer to use this fantastic machine. Thanks for the video JÃ¶rg. Good luck!

06-Feb-09 07:48 AM

S R Dhain Said...

Jorg seems utterly bonkers and apparently goes without sleep for days on end, but i cant wait for it to hit the shops, so i can have a good tweak

07-Feb-09 08:15 AM

selercs Said...

It REALLY takes a lot of courage, intelligence and dedication for a company that is a 1-man-show. Trust me, I tried it once but gave up.

I give 3 thumbs up to Joerg for his innovative ideas, engineering expertise and dedication for his unique groovebox product (that kicks balls of almost all the groovebox products out there). Roland is a huge company, and as such, they have several engineers, marketing directors, etc for their products.

But for a 1 man show like Spectralis, to make even 1 product is simply amazing!

Thanks Joerg. Trust me, I really appreciate you and more so, I appreciate your wonderful, innovative, awesome sounding machine. I will be getting it when it hits the streets...tax return is just round the corner here in the US!!!

07-Feb-09 03:21 PM

Fishy Said...

What makes you think there is a real analog monosynth in there?

08-Feb-09 03:15 AM

CaffeineAddict Said...

@Fishy The Spectralis has two synth engines one digital synth with 32 stereo voices for 11 drum ines and 3 additional melody lines and one hybrid synth. the hybird synth has 2 real analog filters combined with 4 digital created oscillators (like on other VAs) and a 10 band filterbank. these are like modules on an analog modular. you have 3 trigger groups (parts) and you can assign any modul to one trigger group. Just a short example: group 1 : Osc 1 + Osc 2 -> 24 dB analog lowpass group 2: Osc 3 -> analog 12 dB multimode filter group 3: Osc 4 -> filterbank all 3 groups can be played independently. It's no real analog monosynth because it has digital created oscs, but it sounds fantastic and it is much more flexible as mentioned in the example above.

i saw him use the DX7 as a MIDI controller...and he talks about the DX7 on the new website.

Korg/Roland/Yamaha have inspired a lot of cool small European companies that were inspired by Japanese design and engineering. Some of this include: Novation, Access Music, Clavia.

10-Feb-09 12:17 PM

JÃ¶rg Said...

I had no other keyboard fitting my needs when I did that tradeshow. I also had a JX-3P (without velocity)and a Waldorf Q (way too big)but I decided to take the DX-7 because it's small, has velocity and will not distract so much from the Speckie. I love my DX-7 but my instruments mostly were the opposite of the DX-7. More knobs, more sequencer, more subtractive, more fun;-)

10-Feb-09 12:46 PM

Joerg Said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuFLUT-0HiQ

18-Feb-09 05:23 PM

jezisek Said...

This modules is shipping now. I have ordered it here: http://www.hudebnicentrum.cz/inshop/syntezatory-1/radikal-technologies-spectralis-2.html I am looking forward to as a small boy :-)